Alla Tarasova

Alla Konstantinovna Tarasova (6 February 1898 – 5 April 1973) was a Soviet and Russian stage and film actress and pedagogue, born in Kyiv, Ukraine. She became one of the leading figures of Konstantin Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre from the late 1920s onward and was designated a People's Artist of the USSR in 1937.

Tarasova's international profile grew during a tour of London and the United States with the Moscow Art Theatre between 1922 and 1924, during which she appeared on Broadway in three productions: The Depths, The Brothers Karamazoff, and The Cherry Orchard. All three ran during the 1923–1924 Broadway season.

Her screen career included the role of Katerina in the film adaptation of Ostrovsky's The Storm in 1934 and the role of Catherine I in Peter the Great in 1937. Her most celebrated screen performance came with the title role in Anna Karenina in 1937. Additional film appearances included Raskolnikow in 1923, Guilty Without Guilt in 1945, a second Anna Karenina in 1953, and A Long Happy Life in 1966.

Tarasova received five Stalin Prizes over the course of her career: a first-degree prize in 1941, both a first- and second-degree prize in 1946, and first-degree prizes again in 1947 and 1949. She also held two Orders of Lenin. In 1952 she was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, where she served as a deputy until 1960, and she joined the Communist Party in 1954. The title of Hero of Socialist Labour was conferred upon her shortly before her death.

Tarasova died on 5 April 1973 and was interred at the Vvedenskoye Cemetery. In 1975, a ship designated the MV Alla Tarasova was named in her honor.